Finding information on people can be as simple as using the library. Libraries have changed over the years from a nice place to check out free books, to an online source of volumes of information.
Libraries provide a variety of information for public records.
Newspapers - Hometown newspapers will send weekly or daily copies to the local libraries for free. Libraries will bind or have on microfilm all the back issues of newspapers.
Books - Information on family genealogy can be found in libraries. Many times family historians will compile a family tree book and donate one copy to the local library. Books on local history may lead to a valuable clue in searches for a person.
Online - Many libraries have internet access with a variety of subscriptions. College and university libraries will have online access to a wide variety of journals including bound publications of magazines, professional journals, and books. Some of these articles might include public records material, which can be used for future research.
Phone Books - Larger libraries will have phone books available. New additions of phone books will have the most recent information for contacting a person but the old phone books will have previous address and phone numbers.
The information available from libraries is endless. In the new age of the internet, local libraries have gone to the next level in providing information to the public. For example, there is www.ipl.org. Ipl2 is a site where students, libraries and library science professionals, answer reference questions for the site in a section called, "Ask an ipl2 Librarian service."
The website recently merged the collections of resources from the Internet Public Library and the Librarians' Internet Index websites. The website is bursting with information searchable by subject and age specific criteria. Searches lead to variety of sources for information.
In addition, OCLC.org is a website that has computerized networks of libraries from across the world providing access to library catalogs. The OCLC goal is to help lower costs for libraries and provide products for library users that are easily available via the internet.
Through there Worldcat, searches can be done for a wide and diverse amount of information. The search results will come back with the title of the work, place where it is located and year. A list of the nearest libraries where the source is located will be displayed. Some material can be sent to your local library for further research.
Another source for newspapers is the Library of Congress website. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of different resources of material. Much of the information must be viewed with in the Library of Congress but they also have put many files online through there Digital Collection. Information such as books, recordings, pictures, manuscripts and maps.
Online information from the Library of Congress' newspapers are available at the Chronicling America section, users will find a searchable database for historical newspapers from 1860 to 1922. In addition, there is also a link for historical information on newspapers. Included in the newspaper database are these states: Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.
The library also includes a large selection of personal papers from not just famous people but everyday people. Some families donated personal letters, books, family trees, and financial records can be viewed at the library.
Another source of information is State Libraries. Many state libraries have archived the state's newspapers on microfilm; some have searchable databases for the newspapers. Many families will have donated papers, manuscripts, books, photographs, and other items to state libraries for archiving. It is worth the time to search the State Libraries as a general rule of thumb, they are a fountain of local and state information found nowhere else.
One of the best ways to make progress in searching for people is to use the resources in public libraries. As time goes by, libraries are finding ways to get there collections out to the public in a variety of unique and innovative ways.
GenealogyBank.com The largest online newspaper archive for family history research with over 1.5 billion names from 1600's to present day. Search free.
